The present invention relates generally to communications systems.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephones, as well as mobile telephones and other types of telephones, often provide functionality that facilitates the dialing of telephone calls. Such functionality may be provided through directories which enable users to readily access and dial telephone numbers. By way of example, many telephones include a directory of missed calls which substantially automatically stores telephone numbers of call originators that failed to complete a call, a directory of received calls which substantially automatically stores telephone numbers of call originators that successfully completed a call, a directory of placed calls which substantially automatically stores telephone numbers that were dialed, and a personal directory which stores telephone numbers which are likely to be dialed.
The use of directories allows a user to efficiently select a telephone number and dial that telephone number. For instance, if a user wishes to call back someone he or she has just received a call from, he or she may access a directory of received calls and select a telephone number to dial. Similarly, if a user wishes to call back someone he or she has fairly recently called, he or she may access a directory of placed calls and select a telephone number to dial.
Communications networks that support the use of communications devices such as telephones generally enable communications to effectively be handed off, e.g., transferred, between different communications devices. By way of example, if a first individual uses a first device to call a second individual at a second device, the second individual may use the second device to transfer the call to a third individual at a third device. Upon transferring the call to the third device, the second device effectively becomes idle with respect to the call while the first device is in communication with the third device on the call. The caller identifier (ID), e.g., a telephone number, of the third device may be displayed on a display associated with the first device during the call such that the first device may identify the third device as being on the other end of the call. However, once the call is terminated, there is effectively no record stored on the first device which indicates that the first device was on the call with the third device. As such, a user of the first device may be unable to readily initiate another call to the owner of third device, as for example to continue the conversation which occurred during the now terminated call.